Family health climate: a qualitative exploration of everyday family life and health

Abstract

Background The family is an important social environment for children’s, adolescents’ and adults’ health. However, studies mostly focused on dyadic and unidirectional influences of parents on their children. Studies addressing influences arising from daily family life and including family-level influences are rare and the existing studies solely focus on the relevance for children’s health or health-related behaviors. We use a qualitative approach to explore how daily family life and its inherent health-related cues affect family members’ physical activity and eating behavior. Methods Semi-structured interviews utilizing an interview guide were conducted. Since we aimed to examine family life, we analyzed both parents’ and their children’s views on health-related interaction patterns and family environmental influences on individuals’ health-related behavior. Twenty-two members of seven families were interviewed. Transcripts of the interviews were systematically analyzed following Grounded Theory principles. Results The interviews revealed that various individual as well as environmental factors shape health-related aspects of daily family life. A model was developed that organizes these influencing factors on family life with regard to health-related interactions and the emergence of the Family Health Climate (FHC) – reflecting shared perceptions and cognitions regarding a healthy lifestyle within families – and its consequences. Family interactions and family time, often realized through shared family meals, are key factors for families’ health with regard to nutrition and physical activity. The FHC showed to affect various aspects related to health behavior of individual family members. Conclusions The model sheds light on underlying processes and mechanisms of family life that influences individuals’ health-related behavior. Based on a better understanding of the association between family life and individual health behavior the development of family-based interventions can be informed. Furthermore, the insights can help to guide further research focusing on families as a system.

The influence of routine and leisure family activities on the ability of young Asian Americans to maintain a healthy lifestyle: findings from a nationwide survey

“…Moreover, past research has similarly highlighted the powerful role of routine family activities as an influence on lifestyle behaviors (Repetti et al, 2011 ; Wäsche et al, 2021 ). However, differences in the association observed between routine and leisure activities with lifestyle behavioral influence may be explained by the unique types of spaces that different shared activities actually create for the meaningful, impactful interactions that contribute to lifestyle behaviors (Michaelson et al, 2021 ), or how influence is actually manifested across different lifestyle behaviors.…”

“…File 1). Although there has not been a systematic theoretical explanation on specific categories of shared family activities, informed by existing research focused on routine and leisure family activities (Militello et al, 2018 ; Repetti et al, 2011 ; Sandbulte et al, 2019 ; Wäsche et al, 2021 ) (further corroborated by the in-depth interviews of young AAs conducted during formative research), items were categorized by two researchers (with a third as tie-breaker) as either routine, task-oriented, or habitual behaviors (“routine”), or those indicative of leisure, pleasure-oriented, or bonding behaviors (“leisure”). Importantly, since the sources used to identify shared activities may not have pre-classified many items as explicitly leisure and routine, strong or exclusive conceptual connections may not exist with these constructs.…”

“…There is limited literature that disaggregates specific AA family interaction patterns and shared activities that may influence health behaviors. Qualitative research has suggested that routine shared family activities (e.g., eating meals and attending competition events) play a pivotal role in exerting a positive health influence on youth by exchanging health-related information and establishing healthy behavioral norms (Wäsche et al, 2021 ). Among adults, at-home routine activities with family members are similarly foundational in social and emotional experiences linked with health (Repetti et al, 2011 ).…”

The validation of culturally appropriate scales to assess the family health climate in a multi-ethnic Asian population

“…As an aspect of family life, it would be necessary to find out how a healthy FHC is developed and how it in turn influences individuals. Work on this has started, e.g., Wasche et al, 2021 ( 50 ) have explored the underlying processes and mechanisms which create the FHC that influences family members' health behaviors. Further work in different cultural settings is needed, where family systems are likely to be different ( 51 ).…”

Relationship between the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Well-Being of Adolescents and Their Parents in Switzerland

“…We hypothesized that: (1) changes in well-being measures among adolescents were related to those observed among their parents; but (2) greater changes have occurred among adolescents than among their parents. The first hypothesis stems from the idea that family climate as a whole is an important component of well-being [ 13 , 14 ], and the second hypothesis is related to the idea that, as a developing subpopulation, adolescents may be more affected by a sudden event that fundamentally alters their life pattern than adults [ 15 , 16 ].…”